1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat-dissipating assembly, and in particular to a heat-dissipating assembly which is capable of driving a working fluid to conduct the heat without providing a wick structure and the manufacture cost thereof is reduced greatly.
2. Description of Prior Art
Currently, since highly-advanced manufacturing processes have been developed in the electronic semiconductor industry, electronic apparatuses are made more and more compact in order to meet the request in the market. Although the dimension of the electronic apparatus is reduced, the power and performance thereof have been enhanced to a greater extent. For example, communication modules and household and/or industrial heat exchangers are provided therein with a number of electronic components. In operation, these electronic components generate a great amount of heat. Usually, a heat sink comprising heat-dissipating pieces and a fan is used to dissipate the heat of the electronic components and maintain the working temperature of the electronic components in a normal range.
Recently, liquid-cooling technology has been widely used in personal computers, but not used in the aforesaid communication modules and the house and/or industrial heat exchangers. According to the liquid-cooling technology, the bulky heat-dissipating pieces are eliminated to reduce the dimension of the heat sink, and a working liquid is used to absorb the heat of a heat source. In this way, the heat exchanger can be used to exchange the heat absorb by the working liquid with external air. Further, the length of pipes can be modified properly to change the position of the heat exchanger, so that the position of the heat exchanger may not be restricted by the space. Further, the liquid system needs a pump and a liquid tank to generate the circulation of the working fluid. Thus, the pump and pipelines may suffer damage to cause the leakage of the working fluid. Although the liquid-cooling system has the above-mentioned problems, they are still preferred options for the heat dissipation of electronic elements in a personal computer because the dimension and external space of the personal computer are larger.
However, the communication modules and the household and/or industrial heat exchangers are made more and more compact in size, so that the liquid-cooling system is not suitable in such a compact space. Preferably, heat pipes or other small-sized heat sinks are still used together with heat-dissipating fins to achieve a desired heat-dissipating effect in these small-sized communication modules and the household and/or industrial heat exchangers. In view of this, the manufacturers in this field continuously attempt to develop a better heat-dissipating assembly.
In prior art, heat-dissipating elements such as heat pipes, vapor chambers are used for thermal conduction. When manufacturing the heat pipe or the vapor chamber, the internal walls of the heat pipe or the vapor chamber are formed with a sintered body serving as a wick structure. To this end, metallic (such as copper) particles or powder are pressed and then sintered in a sintering furnace, so that the copper particles or powder can be sintered as a porous wick structure. The wick structure is configured to generate a capillary force so as to allow the working fluid to flow through. However, because of this sintered wick structure, the heat pipe or the vapor chamber has a certain thickness and thus unable to be made as compact as possible. Alternatively, sintered cores, grids or grooves may be formed inside the vapor chamber for generating a capillary force to drive the circulation of liquid/vapor phase of the working fluid therein. However, manufacturing the cores, grids and grooves in the vapor chamber involves a more complicated process and an increased cost.
Furthermore, in the above vapor chamber, the core is important because it serves as a path for allowing the condensed working fluid to flow through at high speed and maintains a sufficient capillary pressure to overcome the force of gravity.
Therefore, the conventional heat pipe or vapor chamber has the following problems.
(1) its manufacturing process is complex;
(2) it cannot be made compact enough;
(3) the cost is higher; and
(4) more working hours are needed.